HOUSE TELEPHONES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 195, 16 August 1907, Page 7

HOUSE TELEPHONES.

.'A- matter of considerable importance, especially to suburban residents, was fcrcraght under the notice of the council the Chamber of Commerce yesterday ■afternoon. ,:V Mr Mas Lesser wrote suggesting that ebargea for telephones should be reduced ,W enough to allow the bulk of the toeople to take advantage of them. jjj j, B. Macfarlane said he could not jmderstand -why people should pay more for a telephone in a private house, where £t was seldom used, than they did for one -si business premises, which was being -ised every few minutes. Of course, household telephones were cheaper tbar business telephones within the mile rad--iiis, ? but if a man lived in the suburbs, ' the telephone to his house cost more than the one at his place of business. In his •"'own ease he had to pay £9 a year for the telephone at his residence. - Mr J. Gunson said in his own case it •' 'tost £30 to get the telephone to his residence at Epsom, and the charge for it •Sras £14 per annum. He lived a good iray out, but still the charge was a '?■ ieavy one, As far as the charge for h nereantile telephones was concerned, he , V sonsidered it reasonable enough, but a ' : -eduction should certainly be mads on ■ Ehose for private houses. ;; 3*he President moved that Mr Lesser ~-■-' se thanked for bringing thejnatter under % the notice of the Chamber, which was |- igreed to. It was further agreed that h- [he" secretary (Mr Denniston) should ~\ srite to Sir Joseph Ward upon the matI «r. : Mr Gunson said they should make it ■ perfectly clear that it was for houses ! iutside the mile radius that the Chamber t. 'fconsidered the present charge too high.

I The President said he noticed in the Press that in Australia one Minister rpoke of the time when the telephone would be in nearly every house. There sras no doubt that if the charges for telephones in private houses was reduced, ihe number used -would be greatly inireased. The best way was to communiiate with Sir Joseph Ward, who was alrays anxious to popularise the post, telegraph and telephone services.